A Well Worn Path: One Among Many

Another added benefit of staying so close to the airport as opposed to the usual haunt (Milele Guest House) is that you can bypass almost all of the Nairobi traffic on your way out of town towards Kisii using the Southern Bypass Road.  'm sure you all wanted to hear the latest on Nairobi traffic patterns and hotel locations. I can't remember how many times I've traveled the road to Kisii but the views afforded to you while descending down into the Rift Valley never get old.

I It was a mostly uneventful trip which is fantastic. Four solid days of travel has taken its toll so Saturday was a welcome relief absent of all travel whether it be by plane, automobile, or motorbike.  Patrick the pro driver is someone that I'd never met but who was with the mission helper team last year each step of the way.  You can tell that he's guided tours for a very long time since he is a fount of info on just about every sight you might see along the road from baboon begging tendencies to the latest developments in Kenyan infrastructure.  He was eager to point out how reckless the drivers of Trans Line buses were being as they passed us in both directions.  (He did this because Trans Line buses were the mode of travel that I used while staying in Kenya for longer periods of time and on a shoestring budget.)

Saturday I was able to recover a bit, listen to the Bucks victory over the Celtics on the radio, and meet with Pastor Enosh to discuss many things.  Please pray that St. David's KINSHIP Academy at Etago would be able to overcome any challenges that they face.  Sunday will involve riding with Enosh in his trusty wagon to church services at Chotororo (Pastor Fred Ogendo) and Kenuchi (Pastor Isaac Kemue) and hopefully making it out of the hills before the heavy rains come and make things a sloppy mess.

Does Kenya Keep Their Armies In Their Sleevies?

Since the last visit to East Africa a new hotel has been constructed within the confines of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's secure property.  Four Points is a part of the Sheraton family and qualifies for Anna's employee discount.  It's a relief to take only a five minute ride to the hotel after over 30 or so solid hours of air travel.  It's good to have connections.

"Roughing It"

Today's to-do list was supposed to be rather simple and uneventful.  It started out exactly that way.  Change money, get malaria meds, buy local sim cards for phone all were normal things.  Next was a trip out to Ngong nature preserve where the new campus of Lutherans in Africa is located.  They were previously known as The Lutheran Heritage foundation and located in Karen.  They are an independent Lutheran outfit that translates catechisms and various other Lutheran materials for various parts of Africa including many local languages of this country.  A new facet of their work has been the training of men from different parts of East Africa for the ministry.  Rather than paying rent anymore they bought some land and are in the process of building classrooms, dormitories, a library, dining hall, kitchen, the whole works.

Conflict Resolution Specialist

On the way to finding this place we came upon a protest involving the majority of a primary school's student body.  Small children in school uniforms had blocked the road with stones, thorn bushes, antheir own little bodies.  We didn't get a definitive answer as to why they were doing this, but the story told was that the road in front of their school was dangerous and more than a few people had lost their lives vehicle crashes there.  They wanted to get the attention of the local government and the teacher of this school thought this was the best way.  So we waited...and waited.  Two hours passed when suddenly filing past our car were Kenyan men in fatigues and wielding military rifles.  A few orders barked from the man in charge forced bodies into motion and the stones were cleared away in minimal time.

Crisis Management Squad:  Front and Center

Unbeknownst to me, our issues were not totally resolved.  Lutherans in Africa doesn't have an address, only a google map point.  There is no signboard on the side of the road either.  We wandered a bit to no avail.  Google Maps on my Kenyan phone does not work very well.  We asked for directions from some locals and ended up unofficially hiring a Maasai to guide us to our destination.  We went down dirt roads, gravel, roads, holey roads, and roads that should not be classified as roads.  An added bonus was that we wandered through a giraffe sanctuary which had a very Jurassic Park feel to it.

After only two more hours were added on to this routine trip we found the place.  Upon asking a roadside dweller if he knew where the Lutheran place was his eyes immediately lit up and he flashed an enormous smile.  It turns out that he works on the construction projects there.  Several people were milling around, students were on their lunch break, and I made a bee line for their book storage to get what I needed and to head back out on a much shorter return route.  I met with their chief translator as the resident pastor that I'm familiar with was currently in the U.S.  A visiting pastor from America who was filling in to teach that week was having a hard time rounding up the students after their lunch break which was taking a long time.  (I've been there.  I feel his pain.)  I gathered up a bunch of Kisii catechisms, Swahili large catechisms, and Swahili copies of the Book of Concord.  2 hour mission accomplished in just under 5.  That's why you should only plan to accomplish 1 thing each day.  If things go your way, 2 is a real treat.

Classrooms, Worship Area, Library, Book Storage

Administration Building

Off to Kisii in the morning!  Or as the travel guide calls it "loud, dirty, and rude.  Don't bother visiting Kisii if you can help it"  Tourists, amiright?